Unlike gamepads, which give a simple on/off control for the different directions, analogue sticks allowed a more graded response, based on how firmly or gently the player moves the analogue stick controller. Otherwise known as the control stick or thumbstick, analogue sticks are a variation of the joystick. It became the de facto standard until the Nintendo 64 controller was released, which included an analogue stick. This style of game controller replaced the once-popular joystick with the directional-pad and a set of action buttons. It was only with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s that controllers radically evolved to the gamepad design we are now familiar with. Twisting these dials would influence the electrical flow which would in turn translate into the appropriate movement on screen. Each dial was connected to a device which regulated the flow of electricity, within the controller. One dial controlled horizontal movement on screen whilst the other would control the vertical. The Odyssey’s 2D games were crude simulations of sports such as tennis or basketball.Įach of the paddles was fitted with two dials on either side. The first commercially available game controller was released over a decade later in 1972, with the Magnavox Odyssey’s pair of gaming paddles. Players played the game by using an aluminium controller to hit the ball. The game paired an early analogue computer with an oscilloscope (the kind of instrument you’d see in a mad scientist’s lab in a 1950s B movie) serving as a basic monitor. In 1958 the American physicist William Higinbotham created the interactive game Tennis for Two. Video game controllers can now be found in an astonishing range of places, from pilots controlling drones to medical students training through virtual surgery.īut how did we get here? Today’s Xbox or Playstation controllers took a long time to achieve their current, ergonomic form. They’ve become more intelligent, more pleasing to hold and use, and able to adapt to the increasing complexity of the gameplay they are meant to be controlling.Īnd their effect is starting to be felt a long way away from the first-person shooters and football simulations that spawned their ongoing design. A single control stick and a few buttons were all a gamer needed to blast aliens or score a winning goal on the primitive, pioneering games consoles.īut in the last few decades, they have grown up. And, as the demonstration showed, this space age weapon is guided by something every self-respecting 14-year-old is familiar with: a controller just like those used to play video games.
The weapon is essentially the kind of death ray that science fiction has been promising for decades. Just this week, the US Navy announced it had approved a laser weapon to be deployed on an amphibious vessel serving in the Persian Gulf. Games controllers can end up in the strangest places.
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